As Xun Yao expected, Wei Si summoned Xun Yao the next day and put forward the conditions for an alliance against Zhao - to cut off the nine cities in the southeast of the Jin Kingdom from the Wei State, and send a proton.

The dispatch of protons was already expected by Wei Zhu and Xun Yao, and they did not raise any objections, but it was impossible to cut off the nine cities.

The Jin State and the Wei State are not good brothers, and they have done a lot of deceitful things. If the nine border cities are really given to the Wei State, the door of the Jin State will be wide open, and it will really be under the control of the Wei State.

Xun Yao argued, and the two sides each took a step back, and the Jin State sent the crown prince to the Wei State as a hostage, and handed over the taxes of the nine border cities to the Wei State for ten years. The two countries finalized the contract, and Wei Si ordered the general Wei Yi to be the commander, leading 100,000 troops, and went straight to the territory of the Tang State.

In this way, the three attacks on Jin became an alliance of Tang, Zhao, and Yan against Jin, Qi, and Wei. The confidence of the Jin Kingdom has increased greatly, and the dark clouds that have shrouded Quwo for days have finally dissipated, and the faces of the people of Quwo have a long-lost smile again.

The 100,000 troops of the Qi State crossed the Yellow River and the soldiers were under the city of Cangzhou, and at that time, the 100,000 elite soldiers of the Yan State attacked Jin, and the remaining 780,000 soldiers and horses in the country were scattered everywhere, and there was no way to immediately collect them to rescue Cangzhou. Cangzhou is in an emergency.

Zhao is a little better than Yan, and the domestic elites are all cavalry. After learning that the Qi State divided its troops to take the cities of Pingyin, Zhao Yong made a decision and ordered the army in the territory of the Jin State not to retreat, but still moved forward step by step and went straight to the city of Quwo. And he led 50,000 elite cavalry from all over the country to go to the Pingyin front, and the morale of Zhao State was greatly boosted.

The former capital of Yuguo, Pinglu.

This was once the most prosperous city in Yu Kingdom, but now it has become an ordinary county town in Tang Kingdom. After Fang left and moved the capital, he was appointed as the Taishou of Pinglu, and Liaohua was the main soldier, and there were 10,000 soldiers and horses stationed here.

Pinglu is bordered by Zhongtiao Mountain in the north, Hanoi in the south, and Wei in the east. The first stop of the Wei army's attack on the Tang State still chose here.

Once Pinglu was taken, the Wei army could either move west into the territory of the former Liang state and attack Shaoliang before Cao Cao's army returned to defense. It can also go south to knock on Hanoi, and then threaten Luoyang and Xingyang, and insert Fang Li's hinterland into the cross.

Jia Xu had already expected that if Wei sent troops, the first stop would definitely be Pinglu, and he asked Fang Li early to mobilize troops and horses stationed in Yanzhou and Luoyang to reinforce Pinglu.

Luoyang is about 400 miles away from Pinglu, but the garrison must always monitor Zhou Tianzi's movements and cannot be mobilized on a large scale.

Yanzhou was newly established, although the soldiers and horses did not suffer much loss, but the people's hearts were unstable after all. Cheng Yu, Li Dian and others have been recruiting for several months, but they have only pieced together about 15,000.

At this time, 10,000 people led by Li Dian were already on the way to help Pinglu. But the road is long and rugged, and it takes at least seven or eight days to get there.

The 100,000 Wei troops led by Wei Yu went all the way unimpeded, and they could reach Pinglu City in about two days.

And the Pinglu garrison, plus the 5,000 cavalry brought by Jia Xu, as well as the strong men temporarily recruited inside and outside the city, are only in their early 20,000s. There was a huge disparity in the strength of the two sides, and the Tang army was under tremendous pressure.

Wei Yu, who was proficient in siege, knew that Pinglu's troops were insufficient, so he ordered his army to hurry up and slash his horses, vowing to take Pinglu before the armies of Yanzhou and Fangli returned to help. Lay a nail for Wei in the territory of Tang State.

In Pinglu City, the people who learned that the Wei army was attacking in a big way were already panicking. Those who had relatives elsewhere fled from the city early, and those who could not leave, each family took out all their savings to hoard food.

The profiteers in the city saw that there was an opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to raise the price of grain significantly, but fortunately, the trial responded in time and suppressed it by thunderous means, so there was no chaos.

In the Taishou Mansion, the judge and Jia Xu sat on one side, both frowning. Liao Hua paced left and right, muttering for a while that he wanted to go out of the city to kill the enemy, and then said that it was better to stick to it, with a look of hesitation on his face.

However, Yang Yi's face was calm, and from time to time he stroked his beloved iron tire bow behind him with his backhand. When the Wei army came to the city, it was the time when it went on a killing spree.

Just when the four of them were discussing countermeasures, someone from outside the door came to report that dozens of young people who claimed to be disciples of Luban had arrived outside the gate of Taishou Mansion with dozens of carts.

Everyone's eyes lit up and they hurried out to greet them.

When Jia Xu was still in Luoyang, he had already heard the name of the Tang Kingdom's instrument manufacturing led by Lu Ban, and he naturally couldn't wait to have the opportunity to see and see at this time.

When I walked out of the door, I saw that about 50 young people in simple clothes were busy unloading the goods, and one after another large closed boxes were moved out of the car, attracting passers-by to stop and watch.

Seeing that there were more and more onlookers, Jia Xu was worried that there were spies sent by Wei State, so he hurriedly reminded the judge in a low voice: "Taishou, there are many people, let's let people move into the mansion and take a closer look." ”

The judge was suddenly, and hurriedly grabbed Liao Hua, who couldn't wait to open the box, and beckoned people to come over to help. It took about another hour to move all the boxes into the house.

After finishing the work, one of the young people who looked like a leader took the initiative to step forward, saluted the three respectfully, and introduced: "The three adults, the villain is ordered by the master to send the city guarding equipment to Pinglu City. ”

"Okay." The judge stroked his palms and laughed, "Mr. Gong is really a charcoal in the snow, let the official see what good things he has brought?" ”

The young man answered, and instructed the disciples to open the boxes one by one, revealing the strange instruments inside and introducing them one by one:

"This is a bed crossbow, with a big wood as a bow and a feather spear as an arrow, which is triggered by a machine and shot more than a thousand steps from a distance. It took several months for the master and his brothers to finally solve the problem of the accuracy of the bed crossbow, which was several times that of the ordinary bed crossbow. Hearing that Pinglu was in an emergency, the master ordered the craftsmen to rush to work day and night, so twenty crosses were made, and all of them were sent to Pinglu to help defend the city. ”

"Good fellows! This is a weapon to defend the city! "Liao has become a military general, and among the three, he is the most proficient in combat equipment.

The young man's eyes had already lit up long before he introduced him. After listening to the introduction, he even stroked the twenty new-style bed crossbows like stroking a baby, and it was very funny to see the judge and Jia Xu.

After introducing the bed crossbow, the young man instructed everyone to open five wooden boxes with a height of two meters, and continued: "This is a light throwing cart that Master has transformed with one hand, and it can be fired by one person. It can be placed on top of the castle tower and used exclusively for defending the city. The power is much larger than that of the bed crossbow, but the accuracy is worrying, and it is difficult to make, so only five of them were produced this time. ”

As soon as the words fell, Liao Hua instantly threw up the crossbow and turned to the side of the throwing car, eager to try to let someone tell him how to launch, and couldn't stop admiring: "This is also a good thing, even if there are only five, it is enough for the turtle sons of Wei State!" ”

The young man smiled, and then introduced the other equipment for defending the city:

There are countless yaksha mines, wooden mines, wolf tooth slaps, thistles terrestris, as well as blade cars, fierce fire oil tanks, etc., some of which are original and some are new. After the skillful transformation of Lu Ban and others, all of them have greatly increased their power. The three of them were dazzled and overjoyed.

These people even brought a thousand dollars in crossbows. Although the number is not large, the Yuanshu crossbow with a long range and can shoot ten arrows at a time is definitely a great weapon of the Tang Kingdom, whether it is attacking and defending the city or field battles, it can come in handy.

"Mr. Gong Lose really lives up to his name."

Jia Xu stroked his beard lightly, and his face relaxed a lot, "With these sharp weapons, our army should be able to hold on for a while before the arrival of reinforcements from Yanzhou." ”